paul schreiber » phones

Mind WIND Mobile stick phones home

paulschreiber — Wed, 18 May 2011 17:20:12 +0000

I recently purchased a new internet stick from WIND. It’s a Huawei E1691. In addition to improving the device hardware, they also replaced the software.

Instead of a slow Java monstrosity, it’s now a Windows XP-clone written in QT. Ugh. Today I discovered it has a built in auto-updater. Every now and then, it checks in with update-america.huaweidevice.com.

192.168.001.102.62516-077.222.090.003.00080: POST /america/UrlCommand/CheckNewVersion.aspx HTTP/1.1 Content-Type: text/xml Content-Length: 476 Connection: Keep-Alive Accept-Encoding: gzip Accept-Language: en,* User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 Host: update-america.huaweidevice.com:80 21.003.27.06.562 E1691 11.126.15.02.562 CD98TCPU HEX:434D98558CE2B347B456.. HEX:A7F1D92A82C8D8FE.. English tele.ring MAC 077.222.090.003.00080-192.168.001.102.62516: HTTP/1.1 200 OK Date: Wed, 18 May 2011 17:03:42 GMT Server: Microsoft-IIS/6.0 X-Powered-By: ASP.NET X-AspNet-Version: 2.0.50727 Set-Cookie: ASP.NET_SessionId=ac1su3ngww23xc2mouoosxfu; path=/; HttpOnly Cache-Control: private Content-Type: text/xml; charset=utf-8 Content-Length: 69 1

Checking for software updates is fine. Good, in fact. Apple does it. Google does it. Adobe does. But the software shouldn’t be sending private information such as my IMEI, and it definitely shouldn’t be sending those kind of details in the clear.

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paulschreiber — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 21:50:14 +0000

Hey Wind: these accessories aren’t a very good fit for my data stick:

Verizon willing to let man die over unpaid $20 phone bill

paulschreiber — Sun, 24 May 2009 01:49:27 +0000

Check out this piece in the Dover, Ohio Times-Reporter. Seem Verizon was wouldn’t help the cops until they paid the victim’s overdue phone bill:

Williams said he attempted to use the manâ€™s cell phone signal to locate him, but the man was behind on his phone bill and the Verizon operator refused to connect the signal unless the sheriffâ€™s department agreed to pay the overdue bill. After some disagreement, Williams agreed to pay $20 on the phone bill in order to find the man. But deputies discovered the man just as Williams was preparing to make arrangements for the payment.
…
â€œI was more concerned for the personâ€™s life,â€ Williams said. â€œIt would have been nice if Verizon would have turned on his phone for five or 10 minutes, just long enough to try and find the guy. But they would only turn it on if we agreed to pay $20 of the unpaid bill. Ridiculous.â€

the app store submission process

paulschreiber — Tue, 12 May 2009 06:53:06 +0000

Steven Frank explains the app store submission process:

Develop app
Submit app
App rejected
Blogs raise a stink
App approved

Useless AT&T survey

paulschreiber — Mon, 11 May 2009 01:25:41 +0000

My friend Rob sends along this fun survey from AT&T.

Given the image, any commentary by me would be totally unnecessary.

Verizon: 93% wrong

paulschreiber — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 08:56:27 +0000

Eyeless Writer called Verizon 56 times to ask two different data pricing questions. 93 percent of reps answered at least one question incorrectly.

On AT&T’s brilliance

paulschreiber — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 07:05:44 +0000

Q: How many AT&T employees does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Oww, oww! Hey! My toe!